Visiting the Barred Owl Family

This week, I returned to the “special place for owls” a couple of times. I was not surprised that I was unable to locate the great-horned owls, as the owlets had fledged. I hoped however to find that the barred owlets had fledged and would be “findable”. Indeed they had fledged, and I was able to find two owlets, although I was only able to take photos of one of them, as the other was very high up in a tree and concealed by branches and leaves. When they first fledge, the owlets climb, and are well watched over by their parents. So finding the owlets, depended on finding the parents, and that can prove to be a bit of a challenge. By the end of the week, the parents and owlets were all very high in the canopy. It is my hope that I will be able to encounter them closer to the ground as they start to practice flight, and hunting, over the next month or so. It is possible there is a third owlet, but I have not yet discovered it.

Finding the barred owl parents now, is proving to be a bit of a challenge!

I was thrilled to find this “fuzzball” looking at me, largely unobscured by branches.

Mother was very close by, as was father.

Mother spent a lot of time preening her owlet, which I think had just fledged within a day or two of this photo being taken.

I was able to watch the parents then preening each other.

The owls are very much on guard and I saw them react quickly to the presence of jays and other birds.

With growing owlets to feed, a lot of time is spent hunting.

2 thoughts on “Visiting the Barred Owl Family”

Your photos are very beautiful. I am a Toronto artist with my studio in Grey County, Dundalk Ontario. The owls are really stunning too. I wanted to thank you for the bird that I downloaded from Unsplash. I want to do a painting of it.